Do Women Have a Chance against Men in Chess?

3/8/2012 – As we know all too well: most of the strongest players in the world are male.
In the past we have speculated on the reasons for this gender discrepancy, with
vigorous reader participation.
On International Women's Day Peter Zhdanov, who is married to a very strong
female player, provides us with some valuable statistics, comparing men and
women on a country-by-country basis. Eye-opening.

Do Women Have a Chance against Men in Chess?

By Peter Zhdanov

“I had rather be the first in this village than second in Rome.”—Attributed to Julius Caesar by Plutarch, Life of Caesar.

Abstract

FIDE publishes chess rating lists every two month. Even a casual observer will
notice that most of the strongest players in the world are male. This article
dedicated to the International Women’ Day will partially address another important
question: how developed is women’s chess in each particular country? How do
the strongest female players compare to their most chess-proficient compatriots?

Methodology

Many criteria can be introduced to define the level of development of women’s
chess: what percentage of the registered players is female, what the average
rating of female players compared to male is, etc. In this article the idea
was to use the official FIDE ratings to analyze the places occupied by the #1
female player of each country in the overall national rankings. The basic assumption
behind this approach is that if the country’s environment allows at least one
player to succeed, then others might have a chance as well.

Here is an example for Hungary:

1

Leko, Peter

2720

2

Almasi, Zoltan

2719

3

Polgar, Judit

2709

4

Berkes, Ferenc

2682

5

Balogh, Csaba

2664

6

Gyimesi, Zoltan

2652

7

Erdos, Viktor

2631

8

Chernin, Alexander

2614

9

Ribli, Zoltan

2588

10

Acs, Peter

2587

As you can see, the highest-rated female player in Hungary, Judit Polgar, is
ranked #3 on the overall national rating list. Similar data has been collected
for other chess federations.

Data analysis: the findings

Detailed statistics on the ratings of top female chess players in each country
as compared to male players is provided below [w-rank = world female rank (active
players); n-rank = national rank (all players)]:

No

Country

Player

rating

w-rank

n-rank

1

Hungary

Judit Polgar

2709

1

3

2

China

Hou Yifan

2639

2

6

3

India

Koneru Humpy

2589

3

8

4

Slovenia

Anna Muzychuk

2583

4

3

5

Georgia

Nana Dzagnidze

2559

5

12

6

Ukraine

Kateryna Lahno

2546

7

42

7

Russia

Nadezhda Kosintseva

2535

9

104

8

Bulgaria

Antoaneta Stefanova

2531

10

12

9

France

Marie Sebag

2512

12

30

10

USA

Anna Zatonskih

2511

13

40

11

Lithuania

Viktoria Cmilyte

2497

17

7

12

Poland

Monika Socko

2493

18

30

13

Qatar

Zhu Chen

2490

19

3

14

Sweden

Pia Cramling

2481

24

15

15

Armenia

Elina Danielian

2478

25

23

16

Turkey

Ekaterina Atalik

24754

26

8

17

Austria

Eva Moser

2460

30

7

18

Greece

Elena Dembo

2460

31

13

19

Germany

Elizabeth Paehtz

2459

32

83

20

Mongolia

Batkhuyag Munguntuul

2451

35

3

21

Scotland

Ketevan Arakhamia-Grant

2434

47

5

22

Romania

Corina-Isabela Peptan

2420

49

42

23

Spain

Olga Alexandrova

2419

51

77

24

Singapore

Li Ruofan

2419

52

7

25

Slovakia

Eva Repkova

2416

55

12

26

Netherlands

Peng Zhaoqin

2405

64

60

27

England

Jovanka Houska

2396

69

58

28

Serbia

Natasa Bojkovic

2395

71

102

29

Peru

Deysi Cori T.

2386

76

14

30

Ecuador

Martha Fierro

2380

81

7

31

Cuba

Oleyni Linares Napoles

2366

95

71

32

Argentina

Carolina Lujan

2364

99

89

33

Montenegro

Jovana Vojinovic

2356

105

24

34

Vietnam

Thi Bao Tram Hoang

2356

107

18

35

Italy

Elena Sedina

2353

111

49

36

Indonesia

Irine Kharisma Sukandar

2349

117

21

37

Belarus

Nastassia Ziazulkina

2343

127

43

38

Iran

Atousa Pourkashian

2343

129

23

39

Belgium

Anna Zozulia

2342

130

26

40

Luxembourg

Elvira Berend

2337

139

5

41

Uzbekistan

Nafisa Muminova

2327

151

28

42

Azerbaijan

Gulnar Mammadova

2324

154

47

43

Israel

Masha Klinova

2321

162

110

44

Latvia

Laura Rogule

2317

168

36

45

Czech Republic

Kristyna Havlikova

2312

180

141

46

Croatia

Valentina Golubenko

2297

206

130

47

Iceland

Lenka Ptacnikova

2289

225

40

48

Kazakhstan

Guliskhan Nakhbayeva

2276

246

87

49

Australia

Arianne Caoili

2269

262

52

50

Norway

Ellen Hagesaether

2265

273

77

51

Colombia

Aura Cristina

2262

282

58

52

Moldova

Svetlana Petrenko

2250

320

44

53

Estonia

Valeriya I. Gansvind

2246

331

44

54

Finland

Johanna Paasikangas-T.

2230

366

108

55

Brazil

Vanessa Feliciano Ebert

2226

377

165

56

Venezuela

Sarai Sanchez Castillo

2219

403

40

57

Switzerland

Barbara Hund

2209

431

172

58

Denmark

Nina Hoiberg

2209

435

206

59

Philippines

Chardine Cheradee Camacho

2190

499

156

60

Lebanon

Knarik Mouradian

2185

520

13

61

Portugal

Catarina Leite

2165

583

63

62

Albania

Astrit Zimberi

2161

592

28

63

Bangladesh

Akter Liza Shamima

2160

595

38

64

Iraq

Iman Hasan M. Al-Rufaye

2159

604

67

65

Canada

Natalia Khoudgarian

2158

609

251

66

Myanmar

May Hsett Lwin

2152

641

69

67

El Salvador

Lorena Zepeda

2130

748

18

68

Egypt

Khaled Mona

2125

772

177

69

Bermuda

Zuzana Kovacova

2123

787

6

70

Mexico

Yadira Hernandez Guerrero

2120

800

227

71

Uruguay

Camila Colombo

2102

892

52

72

Macedonia

Gabriela Koskoska

2094

950

136

73

Dominican Rep.

Eneida Perez

2083

1021

71

74

Bolivia

Daniela Cordero

2082

1023

67

75

Wales

Jane Richmond

2074

1082

66

76

Chile

Emilia Larrachea Formas

2061

1156

349

77

South Africa

Melissa Greeff

2059

1170

55

78

Algeria

Amina Mezioud

2053

1209

84

79

Paraguay

Gabriela Vargas

2043

1280

44

80

Tajikistan

Marvorii Nasriddinzoda

2033

1344

22

81

Malaysia

Nur Shazwani Zullkafli

2032

1352

109

82

Turkmenistan

Govher Jorayewa

2029

1368

97

83

New Zealand

Sue Maroroa

2026

1389

96

84

Puerto Rico

Tammy Segara Choe

2006

1548

50

85

Costa Rica

Carolina Munoz

1995

1646

92

86

Jamaica

Deborah Richards

1989

1704

29

87

Nicaragua

Ana Daniela Madrigal

1974

1814

71

88

Jordan

Natalie Fuad

1970

1851

84

89

UAE

Nora MohdSaleh

1944

2084

105

90

Sri-Lanka

S D Ranasinghe

1914

2321

102

91

Ireland

Poornima Menon Jayadev

1904

2403

171

92

Monaco

Julia Label-Arias

1897

2455

24

93

Angola

Maria Conceicao Venancio

1867

2756

37

94

Cyprus

Christianna Markidou

1846

2935

36

95

Faroe Islands

Herborg Hansen

1844

2963

59

96

Thailand

Chanida Taweesupmun

1826

3134

78

97

Surinam

Ekaterina Naipal

1821

3179

23

98

Japan

Emiko Nakagawa

1806

3299

87

99

Panama

Yaribeth Gonzalez

1804

3321

44

100

Trinidad & Tobago

Aditi Soondarsingh

1772

3617

61

101

Malta

Oana Pulpan

1769

3645

45

102

Yemen

Mada Elshereif

1740

3902

69

103

Barbados

Corinne Howard

1721

4112

52

104

Macao

Xiaoyu Xu

1707

4223

20

105

South Korea

Yoomi Lee

1636

4945

48

106

Andorra

Diana Da Rocha Soares

1614

5152

41

107

Palau

Angie Parrado

1551

5681

18

108

Mozambique

Josefa Mendes Lucas

1548

5705

9

109

Aruba

Zaily M. Arbona Avila

1545

5722

12

110

Honduras

Rosa Daniela Ortiz

1538

5765

40

111

Chinese Taipei

Mi Wang

1533

5799

29

112

Libya

Inas Emhemed

1523

5870

51

113

Bahrain

Ishwaryaa Lakshminaryanan

1509

5976

31

Here are some statistics:

Not a single female player is #1 in her country overall. The relative best
results belong to: GM Judit Polgar (2709, #3 in Hungary), GM Anna Muzychuk
(2583, #3 in Slovenia), GM Zhu Chen (2490, #3 in Qatar), IM Batkhuyag Munguntuul
(2451, #3 in Mongolia).

15/141 (10.6%) federations have a female player who belongs to the top-10
of all players in the country. In other words, only in 10.6% of the chess
federations a woman has a tangible chance to play for the main national
team. Of course, this is a very optimistic estimate, because only 5 players
actually make it to representing the country.

47/141(33.3%) federations have a female player rated from #11 to #50 in
the country.

32/141(22.7%) federations have a female player rated from #51 to #100 in
the country.

19/141 (13.5%) federations have a female player rated from #101 to #349
(Chile) in the country.

1/141 (0.7%): at the time of this writing (March 9th, 2012) no data was
available on the ratings of Botswana’s players.

It is worth noting that this data offers an interesting insight on how successful
women’s chess is in each particular country relatively (compared to men’s chess),
not absolutely (compared to women from other countries). For example, Russia
is usually rated #1 on both the overall top countries list and on the top countries
(women) list. In March 2012 China has overtaken the #1 spot on the women’s rankings.
More importantly, the highest-rated Russian female chess player, Nadezhda Kosintseva,
is ranked only #104 on the national rating list, while Hou Yifan is rated #6
in China. This demonstrates that, while being among the strongest on the world
female rankings, Russian women are relatively weak chess-wise in comparison
with their male compatriots.

Conclusion

The study proves once again that women are strongly underrepresented in chess
at the top levels. 19.1% of the chess federations (nearly every fifth) do not
have any FIDE-rated female players. In 70.2% of the federations women are rated
#11-#349 in the country, thus basically having no chance to compete for the
supreme national title, or even play for the national team. Only 10.6% of the
countries have a truly powerful female player ranked #3-#10 on the overall rating
list.

About the author

Peter Zhdanov is an IT project manager, debate expert and author
of two books on parliamentary debate, BSc in Applied Mathematics and
Computer Science and final year PhD student in Sociology.

In chess Peter is a Russian candidate master, author, husband and
manager of grandmaster Natalia Pogonina.

Previous articles on the subject

Do men and women have different brains?30.06.2009 – In a recent thought-provoking
article WGM Natalia Pogonina and Peter Zhdanov presented their views
on the topic of why women are worse at chess than men. A number of our
readers were unconviced: they think that efforts at "explaining" differences
between the sexes only from environmental factors are doomed at the outset.
Recent studies seem to support this. Feedback
and articles.

Women and men in chess – smashing the stereotypes20.06.2009 – On June 5, 2009
WGM Natalia Pogonina and Peter Zhdanov got
married – she a Women's Grandmaster, he a successful IT-specialist
and debate expert. Peter is also Natalia’s manager, together they are
writing a book called "Chess Kamasutra". Today they share with us their
views on the perennial topic why women are worse at chess than men, and
take a look at the future
of women’s chess.

Congratulations to Natalia and Peter, the new chess
couple10.06.2009 – He had read about her in chess
magazines and websites. In August 2008 they met at the Tal Memorial. Peter
Zhdanov and Natalia Pogonina played some blitz, and a new friendship was
born, which eventually blossomed into love and led to a marriage between
the two young Russian chess players. They are currently working on an
extraordinary book, one you
are not going to want to miss.

Gender differences in chess – feedback and a new theory30.01.2012 – We recently
told you about a report on the gender differences in chess – why it
is that there is just one woman in the top 100 players in the world, and
just 2.2 percent in the top 1000, according to the FIDE rating list. Naturally
we received a large number of more or less adamant opinions from our readers,
which we now share with you, together with a
pet idea of our own.

Gender differences in chess09.01.2012 – A new and very commendable women's
live rating list of top players is being maintained by the Russian chess
news portal ChessPro. Fired by this
list we did a little additional research to find out how many female players
there are in the top 100 and top 1000. What would you estimate? And what
are the possible reasons for the superiority of males in certain intellectual
activities? Latest
research.

See also

9/26/2017 – The final classical game. The finals has been relatively sedate with three draws until now. But it could all end today with one decisive game. Ding Liren has the black pieces today. It's going to be an exciting game. Games kick off at 13:00 CEST (7:00 AM EST) with live commentary from Tbilisi by GMs Evgeny Miroshnichenko and WGM Keti Tsatsalashvili and live updates by our reporters Sagar Shah and Amruta Mokal.

See also

7/5/2017 – This is neither prank nor clever wording: Garry Kasparov will be playing in the official St. Louis leg of the Grand Chess Tour from August 14-19, 2017. Please note that this is the Rapid and Blitz competition, just as the ones held in Paris and Levuen these last weeks, and not the classical events. However, this is not an exhibition event, and will determine the official Grand Chess Tour rankings as well as FIDE ratings of the players. Here is the press release.

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